Hollywoodbets Success Story: From Horseracing Bets To Local Dominance

Hollywoodbets is a licensed South African betting company and a top-tier gaming website with strong online and retail presence.

Hollywoodbets

The brand offers local and international horse racing betting, an extensive range of sports betting from soccer, cricket, rugby, boxing, MMA and golf to American sports, as well as innumerable international Lucky Numbers lotteries.

BACKGROUND

To understand the rise and success of Hollywoodbets, let’s take it back to the year 1984, when Owen Heffer arrived in Durban from Zimbabwe in 1984 with a wife and a young kid and possessions of a mattress, two deck chairs and R4 in his pocket.

Heffer always had a passion for horseracing and spent the R4 — R51 in today’s value — printing out 100 tipping sheets which he sold at Greyville racecourse.

He then took a computer programming course and founded the Winning Form racing guide which eventually gave birth to Hollywoodbets as we know it today.

Heffer alongside Suren Rampersadh, who came on board in 1986, were at the heart of things, and working behind the scenes. In 1998 they ventured into bookmaking.

“Our goal when we started was to change the face of retail betting. The old view of a tote (betting rooms) was smokey rooms, white plastic chairs and paper everywhere.”

The legalisation of sports betting post the apartheid era 1994 presented new opportunities, and when soccer betting took off in 2006, Hollywoodbets raised the bar by leading the way with their mobile and online betting facilities.

Over the years, Hollywoodbets has gained a lot of customers due to its consistency in developing the company and growing it to satisfy the needs of the growing population.

In the last financial term, the company sponsored 141 clubs, including women’s teams. On top of that, it has over 80 branches spreaded across the country’s 9 Provinces. It aims at giving its customers a friendly and fun betting environment.

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